Taiwan – Yushan (Jade Mountain)

I’ve climbed a fair number of mountains and completed many hikes, but none has been so embroiled in bureaucratic bullshit and red tape as was Yushan (a.k.a. Jade Mountain). Typically, when I write up a description of my hikes, it’s just that – the hike. But I’m going to use this page to detail how to actually complete all of the tasks necessary to climb Yushan if you’re a foreigner (i.e., not from Taiwan). I’m going to assume that you’ve already decided that you want to climb Yushan, but give it careful consideration once you’ve read this entire post. This was the process in 2023. This may change in the future.

Part 1: Permits

First, you have to apply for a permit to climb Yushan. I want to state at the outset that I’m fine with permits. I strongly value reducing human impacts on natural settings and permits accomplish that. Any criticisms I level about the permit process are about the process for obtaining the permits (yes, that was plural – you need two permits to climb Yushan) for Yushan and not about permits in general. You apply for a permit to climb Yushan here.

Some notes about this first permit. To limit human impact on the environment, only 60 people are given permits to climb Yushan each day. I don’t know how many people apply, but it is definitely more than 60. Also, some of those spots are reserved for foreigners (meaning, not Taiwanese). As a foreigner, you do have an advantage when it comes to getting a permit. That may make you think the Taiwanese government wants you to climb Yushan. And, perhaps they do. But they are not going to make this easy. You can apply for the permit 4 months before the dates you plan to climb the mountain. I’d suggest submitting as close to the 4-month date as possible, especially if your travel dates are flexible, as you may be able to get a permit for a different date if you don’t get the permit you want initially. Also, for some extremely bizarre reason, you can only submit your permit application between 7:00 and 23:00 Taiwan time, so you’ll have to compare those to your time zone and apply accordingly. (They claim this is server maintenance, but I run a server and no one does 8 hours of maintenance on their server, daily!)

What is this first permit for? It is to allow you to climb Yushan. But, it also doubles as permission to spend the night in Paiyun Lodge. In other words, if you get a permit to climb Yushan, you also get permission to spend the night in Paiyun Lodge. (More on Paiyun Lodge below.) Why these two are linked, I’m not 100% sure. But most people who climb Yushan appear to want to do it in two days – the first day is the hike to the lodge from the trailhead (more on the trailhead and trail below) and the second is an early morning hike to the summit to see the sunrise. So, Paiyun Lodge is an integral part of that.

Back to the permit process… If you happen to get a permit, congratulations! But you’re just getting started. Once you’ve been informed that you got a permit in the lottery (usually 35 days before your hike date), you have to fill out an additional form on their website that also indicates how you are going to pay the permit fee. NOTE: You have three (3) days from when you are notified you got a permit until you have to complete the form. If you don’t complete it within those three days, you will lose your permit.

The permit costs $480 NT (about $15 USD). But, here’s the catch, there are three ways to pay, two of which are highly impractical for foreigners. First, if you have a Taiwanese bank account, you can pay via a bank transfer. That was useless for me. Second, you can send a certified check. I toyed with this option but it seemed highly fraught and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get a certified check in NT in the US and get it to Taiwan in time (remember, I only had about a month from when I found out I got the permit to when I would do the hike). The third option made the most sense for me as a foreigner – you can pay at the Paiyun Mountaineering Center in person. (More on how this played out below.) I selected the third option on the online form and a PDF was then generated indicating that I had selected to pay my fee in person. I thought I was done, but that is NOT the end of this step. I submitted my form on the third day after I was notified I got a permit. The next morning, I got an email informing me that my permit had been canceled because I hadn’t completed the form!!! Yep. You read that correctly. I completed the form and they said I didn’t. It turns out, in addition to completing the online form, you also need to use their website to email them to let them know that you completed the form and are planning on paying in person. If you don’t do both, your permit will be canceled! So, fill out the online form then email them to let them know that you filled out the form. (Franz Kafka would be so proud of them!)

Once you’ve completed this step, congratulations! You have finished half of the process of getting your first permit. You still have to pay for the permit and get it printed, signed, and stamped in person. That is done at the Paiyun Mountaineering Center. More on this below.

But you still have a second permit that you have to complete. Apparently, people entering the backcountry in certain regions of Taiwan have to complete a police permit application. Such a permit is required to enter the Yushan National Park. This permit can be completed online. It’s not as onerous as the other permit process and doesn’t cost anything, but… The form has a fun little twist in it that caused me massive problems. If you look at the form closely, you’ll see that they require two (2) different date formats. One is a pretty standard format: YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2023-07-11). But the second date format, which is required on the form, is: YYY-MM-DD. Yep. That’s a three-digit year. In the US, we get two-digit years (e.g., 2023 = 23) and four-digit years (e.g., 2023=2023). But three-digit years? I’ll minimize the suspense here: it’s a Chinese calendar system. To calculate the correct year, either use an online conversion system or subtract 1911 from the current year. That gives you a three-digit Chinese year, which you can then use for the police permit form. Do note that you will need both calendar systems – the Gregorian year system and the Chinese year system on the same form!!! Assuming you can figure everything out, this form seems like an exercise in bureaucratic hurdle-building. You’ll get approved within about 24 hours and get an email to that effect.

I was completely unaware of the second permit until 3 days before I was supposed to do my hike, which created all sorts of problems for me. Additionally, the Chinese year situation resulted in a massive mixup. Since nowhere on the form did they indicate that they were switching from the Gregorian to the Chinese system, I had no idea what was happening. I started toying with dates. I tried dozens of different combinations, none of which worked. With one of those permutations, I changed the month from July (when I was hiking) to August, wondering if that would help. It didn’t, but I forgot to change the month back after I figured out the Chinese year system. I ended up submitting my police permit form on July 6th but put August 9th through the 10th instead of when I was supposed to be hiking – July 9th and 10th. I only realized my mistake when I got the email indicating I had received my permit the next day as it included the dates. Assuming that they would be sticklers with the dates when I tried to enter the national park, I realized I was in trouble. I couldn’t submit another form because I was within the three-day window before your hike starts.

Not knowing what to do, I went ahead and did something a bit crazy. I knew it was a police form. So, I looked up the nearest large police station (I was in Taiwan for a conference near Nangang, which is in the suburbs of Taipei). I figured the police could either give me a new permit or tell me what to do. So, I walked into the police station in Nangang. There were 6 or 7 officers in uniform there sitting at desks. When I walked in, they ALL stood up. I get it. I’m a 6-foot white guy of European descent. They knew instantly I was a foreigner. And they were probably terrified that (a) I was about to do something bad, or (b) something bad had happened to me and they didn’t want that to be the case and make the news! So, I said hello in Chinese (Ni Hao) then asked if they spoke English. A couple of them spoke okay English. I then tried to explain the situation and showed them my permit. It took a bit, but they eventually realized what I needed – a police permit with the correct dates. Unfortunately, they couldn’t give me a permit there. Apparently, police permits are issued regionally. They initially said I would have to go to the police station near Yushan (4 hours away) to get the permit in person. But, they did a little more investigating. One officer got on the phone and made a couple of phone calls. After about 5 minutes, he told me that there was a place in Taipei where I could get a permit that day – the National Police Agency, Ministry of the Interior in Taipei. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find the address in English, only in Chinese. They asked if I could take a cab or Uber there, which I was happy to do, but we couldn’t figure out how to get the address into my phone since my keyboard was in English and they couldn’t type it in. So, we changed my phone’s settings to Chinese, they typed in the address, I copied it, and then they changed my phone’s settings back to English. While we got me an Uber, they also wrote me a note in Chinese that explained the situation. It was very kind of them. They were extremely helpful. All 6 or 7 of them. They were offering suggestions (in Chinese) and trying to help. Basically, the entire first floor of the Nangang police office came to my rescue. As I was headed out to my Uber with my note, one of the officers came back out and said, “Where’s the note?” I handed it to him and he said, “I’m putting down our phone number so they can call us if they are confused.” They were amazing. I thanked them all profusely, then got in my Uber.

When I arrived at the National Police Agency in downtown Taipei, I was greeted by two very imposing steel walls with a small entrance in the middle.

Standing in the middle of the entrance was a thick Taiwanese officer in uniform. As I approached, he looked at me suspiciously, as though he was considering the best way to tackle me. I bowed, said, hello, and then extended the note. He read it, then started chattering at me in Chinese. I shrugged my soldiers and said, “English?” Rolling his eyes, he told me to follow him and took me inside the gate to a small building (to the right in the photo above). Inside was a female officer who spoke English. She read the note, asked me a couple of questions, then got on the phone. She made several calls, made some notes, asked me some questions, then made more calls, more notes, and more questions. About 20 minutes later, she told me that they couldn’t give me a permit there, but they could at the Ministry of the Interior, which was right around the corner. So, just to clarify, the National Police Agency isn’t the same thing as the Ministry of the Interior, but they are linked. I asked her to point it out on a map on my phone and then asked her if they knew I was coming. She pointed it out (it really is right around the corner) and said she was going to call them to let them know I was on my way. Here’s the entrance:

As I walked up to the doors, they slid open and a uniformed guard immediately knew who I was. The female officer had called ahead! He pointed me to his right and down a hallway where two people met me, one of whom spoke pretty good English. He led me to a little window with a sign that read, “Mountain Permits” in English. The window was closed, but they opened it for me and a woman started her computer on the other side while they helped me fill out the required forms that were all in Chinese. It took about 20 minutes of them asking me questions, translating forms, translating my answers, and completing everything on the computer, but I eventually got my permit, stamped and with the correct dates. And, I didn’t have to pay anything.

So, if you’re planning on climbing Yushan, don’t do what I did. Once you get your Yushan permit, immediately fill out the other form and make sure you put the correct dates. I wasn’t quite finished with my first permit, but I was now confident I could at least get into the national park legally.

Part 2: Getting to Yushan

There are public transit options to get to Yushan that involve long bus rides (one or two buses a day go there). Given my timeline, I opted to rent a car in Taipei and drive there. I had conference activities on the morning of July 8th, so I couldn’t pick up my rental car until the afternoon of the 8th. (FYI, Google Maps made the drive pretty smooth. So long as you’re a good, confident driver, you should be fine driving in Taiwan.) I drove to Nantou City, bought supplies for the hike, got everything packed, and spent the night in a hotel. I got up pretty early on the 9th (around 5:00) and headed toward Yushan. It was supposed to be just over two hours to the trailhead area. What I didn’t realize is that they close the road overnight to Yushan. I didn’t read that in any of the trip reports. I don’t know what time they close the road (perhaps you can come down in the night), but I marked on the map below where the road was closed. I pulled up to the road block around 6:15 and a guy walked over, saw I was a foreigner, and held up 7 fingers: they would open the road again at 7:00 am.

I wanted to be on the trail as early as possible, but I wasn’t getting through the roadblock. So, I pulled my car around into a line with two other cars waiting for the road to open and stretched and read for a bit. They opened the road at 6:50. It took another 40 minutes or so from there to get to the Yushan trailhead area.

I then made several mistakes that delayed my hike start time. Remember, I was told I had a permit, but I had to pay for it in person. I couldn’t start hiking until I paid for my permit. I was supposed to pay for my permit at the Paiyun Mountaineering Center. When I got to the area, I saw a sign for the Tataka Visitor Center and saw parking. Not knowing exactly where to go, I parked in the first lot I saw and walked up to the Tataka Visitor Center. There was a map just outside that showed the Paiyun Mountaineering Center. I must have been tired and misread the map, because I thought the Paiyun Mountaineering Center was right by the Tataka Visitor Center. Nope. I waited around thinking it was until they opened at 9:00 am (so, about an hour standing around) only to have someone inside point me to a different location. I was getting antsy about getting on the trail at this point, so I put on my hiking boots, grabbed my backpack, and headed to the Paiyun Mountaineering Center, which was about a kilometer or more away from the Tataka Visitor Center (see map).

I ended up parking in the Tataka 2nd Parking Lot (shown on the map) and had to walk past another, closer parking lot and then up the hill to the Paiyun Mountaineering Center (note, there is no pin for it on Google Maps for some odd reason, which probably added to my confusion. But I promise that is where it is located. I also found out later that it opens at 6:30 am, so I could have gone straight there and started hiking at least an hour earlier! Argh.

Anyway, I walked in, showed them the PDF, and they proceeded to complete the permit process by filling out another couple of forms on their computer, printing my permit, stamping it multiple times, and then letting me pay my permit fee. Finally, at 9:15 am on July 9th, 2023, I officially had a permit to climb Yushan. (NOTE: No one ever looked at my police permit. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get one, only that I didn’t see anyone pay it any attention.)

I walked out the center and there was a line of about 50 people waiting for the little vans to shuttle them up to where the hiking trail starts (at the end of an asphalt road). My map program indicated that the Paiyun Mountaineering Center was the trailhead for the hike, but most people were taking the shuttle for $100 NT from the center to the end of a road, which cut off about 2.4 kilometers of the hike. Doing the math in my head, I estimated that I would be waiting close to an hour to catch one of the little vans (they only take 7 people at a time). I knew I could do 2.4 kilometers (just over a mile) in less time than that. I swung my backpack into place and headed out. I made it to the trailhead marker in about 25 minutes. There were probably 30 people there taking photos. Itching to get on the trail, I skipped past them and headed out.

Part 3: The Hike and Paiyun Lodge

I knew the total distance from the trailhead (meaning, Paiyun Mountaineering Center) to the summit and back was 15 miles. Once you get on the trail, there is some pretty quick elevation gain, then it is level for a while (a gradual incline) then a few more steep spots. The trail is well-maintained and there are signs every .5 kilometers indicating how far to the trailhead marker (where the asphalt road ends) and to the Paiyun Lodge. The elevation at the Paiyun Mountaineering Center is about 8,800 feet. I made decent time for about the first 2 hours but felt it pretty clearly when I crossed about 10,000 feet in elevation. Coming from nearly sea level that morning, my body hadn’t acclimated. I often get a headache when I do that and a headache I got. The elevation combined with some steeper terrain slowed me down a bit as I neared the lodge. Even so, I covered the 6.6 miles from the Paiyun Mountaineering Center to Paiyun Lodge in 3 hours. Total ascent was 3,932 (but you go up and down). The elevation at the Lodge is 11,193 feet. Here are the stats from my Garmin watch:

When I arrived at the Lodge (around 12:30), there weren’t many people there. Most of the previous night’s guests had left and only a few had already arrived. One of the staff spoke okay English. He checked my Yushan permit (ignored my police permits), then checked me in. I had my own sleeping bag (you can rent them there) but hadn’t ordered food in advance. It’s possible to do so on the Paiyun Lodge website, but I couldn’t figure out how. I had brought enough food to get me through until noon the next day, but the thought of a warm meal that night sounded pretty good to me. I told him I’d happily order food if possible. They later came and asked me if I wanted pork or chicken. I was a little nervous about the food as my stomach isn’t what it once was, but I wanted the calories. They then led me up to my room and bunk slot. I took a few minutes to get situated, laying out my sleeping bag and grabbing some food to munch on as well as my backup charger. I headed down to the dining area and ate a bit while reading a book on my phone.

To this point, I hadn’t seen anyone but Taiwanese people on the trail or in the lodge. On the trail, many would smile when I passed them and said “Hello” (Ni Hao). Often, their response was either “Ni Hao” or “Good morning.” I thought they would all be quite friendly. Well, sort of. In the lodge, people kept staring at me. That’s always a good reminder of how racial/ethnic minorities must feel in the US. So, that didn’t really bother me. I was a foreigner. I get that.

But then the bed situation happened… When the staff at the Paiyun Lodge showed me my bunk slot (right next to a wall on the upper bunk), there was a Taiwanese couple right next to my slot. As soon as I put my stuff up, they took theirs down and went to talk to the staff. They then moved their stuff to the bunk below and took a nap. After my snack in the dining room, I headed back up to my bunk and climbed into my sleeping bag to get warm. Over the next few hours, at least three or four more Taiwanese folks were shown into the room and the lodge staff told them they were supposed to sleep next to me, but they all shook their heads “no” and went somewhere else. It was one of the very last hikers up the mountain that night who was “forced” to sleep next to me. He seemed reluctant to do so, even when I helped him get situated in the dark. I’m assuming this is how racial/ethnic minorities feel in the US. No one wants to be near them, talk with them, or have a bed next to theirs. So shitty!

Anyway, I took a brief nap after my snack and then explored the lodge. There are several squats for going to the bathroom, as well as several urinals. There was one Western toilet. There are some changing rooms and some basins for washing hands and brushing your teeth. It was passable, but the lodge had seen better days. It needed a deep cleaning, some fixing, and there were lots of flies as well as the pervasive smell of human waste. 🙁

I eventually went down to the front desk to check on when dinner would be. They said 5:30 pm and also asked me if I wanted breakfast. That’s when I saw the times they were serving breakfast – 1:30 or 2:00 am. I was confused. Why was everyone getting breakfast so early? I slowly started to piece together what the typical routine is: dinner from 5:30 to 6:30 and lights out at 7:00 since lots of people get up at 1:30 to eat then try to climb one of the mountains (the North summit is popular for its views, apparently) before the sun rises so they can be there to see it come up. That changed my plans. I was thinking I’d get up at 5:00 or so and climb early before there was any real heat. I didn’t really care too much about the sunrise, but I did want to see the views. So, my plan was to get up around 3:00, leave around 3:40 or 4:00, and hopefully be able to see the views when I got up there.

I had dinner at 5:30. It was a piece of chicken, some tofu, some boiled cauliflower, some pork fat in gravy, and lots of rice and broth. I ate most of what I was served, but I really don’t eat much. Over dinner, where I was the only foreigner, a couple people did talk to me briefly, explaining what to do with my tray. I also asked them what time they were leaving and they said 1:30 am. After dinner, I got ready for bed and made sure my pack was ready for an early departure the next day. I also ran into the other American there, a FedEx employee from Tennessee who was also hiking by himself. We chatted for a few minutes then had to get ready for lights out. I climbed into my sleeping bag and read until the lights were turned off at 7:00. I had thought to bring earplugs, which helped quell the snoring cacophony (it was really loud), but I didn’t sleep all that well.

I fell asleep at some point, but the commotion of people getting ready to start up the mountain around 1:30 am woke me up. I really did want to try to sleep in until at least 3:00 am, but I couldn’t go back to sleep. I finally got up around 2:30 and took my time getting ready. I headed out around 3:00 am. I think most of the groups had left before me. I started passing people pretty quickly. I wasn’t moving all that fast, but I like to keep a slow but steady pace going uphill and lots of the groups were stopping regularly. This part of the climb is quite steep, with rapid elevation gain. It’s just 2.4 kilometers from Paiyun Lodge to the summit but about 1,700 feet in elevation gain. The last 300 meters or so are really steep and are basically rock scrambling or climbing with the help of anchored chains. I got to the summit just after 4:00 am. It was still dark, though I could see a little light on the eastern horizon. There were probably 10 people up there taking photos. I snapped a few photos, ate some food, then decided to head out. One forecast called for rain at 6:00 am and I didn’t want to get caught in rain on the steep slopes of the summit. Plus, I had to hike all the way out and drive back to Taipei that day.

As I dropped off the summit, I waited patiently for a number of people still heading up. A couple wondered why I wasn’t staying for the sunrise. When I told them about the weather forecast, they mostly dismissed it. All good. They turned out to be right and I was wrong – the weather was fine. About 30 minutes off the summit, it started to get a bit lighter and I had better views. I stopped to take a number of photos but continued on. I made it back to the lodge fairly quickly. I removed a top layer top at that point, ate a bit more, then pushed on, knowing I had 8.5 kilometers to the asphalt road (I was thinking I might catch a van back to the Mountaineering Center).

I made good time and was mostly feeling well, snacking along the way. Since most of the hikers who spent the night in the lodge were still up on the summits and most of those coming in were not on the trail yet, I was mostly alone. That was nice, though there was one spot where I could have used some company. As I rounded a corner at the 4-kilometer mark, I saw something drop off the lower branches of a tree near the trail and crash through the foliage. It wasn’t a bird. The branches were big and they were swaying pretty substantially from whatever had been on them. Plus, the crashing through the brush was a little disconcerting. I didn’t know what it was. A panther? (I later learned they have some smallish panthers in Taiwan, but they are really small and at lower elevations.) A bear? Anyway, I thought I scared it off. But 50 meters later I heard something fairly large crashing through the bamboo towards me. I started banging my hiking poles loudly and was just about running. It turned away but I heard the crashing through the brush continue for a bit. I never did see what it was, but it was big enough to make quite a racket pushing through the bamboo just off the trail. It was another 10 to 15 minutes before I ran into someone else. After that, no more drama on the trail.

I made it to the asphalt road around 8:00 am and hoped there would be a small van. No luck. So, I started up the road. About halfway back to the Paiyun Mountaineering Center, a van passed. Then a second one about 5 minutes later. They came back by me when I had about 10 minutes left, so I may have saved 10 minutes if I had waited, but it was fine. I was off the mountain at around 8:30. My watch died around then, so I think I got most of the route, but not quite all of it. Here’s the route:

And, in case you think the bureaucratic hurdles were over, they were not. I got an email later that day (NOTE: All the emails are in Chinese) informing me that I was supposed to fill out another form on their website indicating when I had left the park. I got it fairly late in the day and waited until I got to my hotel to fill out the form. I think that is the end of the bureaucracy to climb Yushan, but, for all I know (it’s the day after I summited that I’m writing this), I’ll have to fill out more forms in the future. Yushan wins for the most bureaucratic bullshit needed to climb a mountain.

A note on clothing and the temperature. I had read a number of trip reports that said it was bitterly cold at Paiyun Lodge and on the summit. I took those seriously and packed five layers for my upper body and three for my legs, along with a knit cap and gloves. At the trailhead, I was very warm. I wore a long-sleeve hiking shirt over a dry-fit tee. I really didn’t need the dry-fit tee and would have been fine in my long-sleeve hiking shirt given that I keep warm with how fast I move. The temperature down lower made me wonder if I had overpacked. But, once I got to the lodge, and started to cool down after hiking, I quickly got cold. Very cold. It wasn’t freezing out, but it was probably in the 40s Fahrenheit. I put on several more layers in the lodge. As more people arrived, though, the lodge warmed up (at least, up in the rooms). I ended up shedding layers and even unzipping my sleeping bag during the night. The next morning, I started out with three layers on top (my dry-fit tee and long-sleeve hiking shirt, along with a fairly light long-sleeve pullover dry fit) and one on bottom – my hiking pants. I did wear my knit cap and gloves up to the summit as well. I imagine it is even colder during the winter. So, yes, take warm clothes. You’ll need them.

Part 4: Recommendations

Having hiked Yushan, what suggestions do I have for others contemplating this?

1. Read this site carefully and make sure you complete all the forms.
2. If you can, arrive at the Yushan trailhead the afternoon before you are supposed to hike to: (a) pay for your permit at the Paiyun Mountaineering Center and (b) stay at the Dongpu Lodge. A night at 8,000+ feet will help you acclimate so you don’t have the headache I got on the mountain. If you do that, you could actually start the hike really early and do the whole thing in one day. Otherwise, doing this in one day would be pretty challenging.
3. Re-read this site and make sure you have completed all the forms! (Did I mention there is a lot of bureaucracy involved in climbing Yushan?!?!)
4. They will have water at the lodge but it will most likely be warm. The Taiwanese don’t often drink cold water. So, pack plenty of water but know you can get some at the lodge.
5. Know that most people will get up at 1:30 to climb to the summit. Prepare for that.
6. Know that the food served in Paiyun Lodge is traditional Taiwanese fare.
7. Know that Paiyun Lodge isn’t an oasis. It’s passable, but smells pretty bad and isn’t all that clean.
8. Know that you will be singled out as a foreigner.
9. Know that the road to Yushan closes at night and doesn’t open until 7:00 am.
10. Know the location of the Piayun Mountaineering Center and that it opens at 6:30 am.